lawyer, professor of political science, author, diplomat, b. Milwaukee. He attended Concordia (Lutheran) College in Milwaukee and graduated from the Univ. of Wisconsin (B.A., 1892; LL.B., 1894; Ph.D., 1898). After receiving his law degree in 1894, Reinsch practiced briefly in Wisconsin, but soon turned his interests to political science. He was assistant professor (1898-1901) and professor (1901-1913) of political science at the Univ. of Wisconsin, and from 1911 to 1912 was visiting professor at the universities of Berlin and Leipzig. During his teaching career he also served with the U.S. delegation to the 3rd and 4th Pan-American Congresses (1906, 1910), and was a delegate to the Pan- American Scientific Conference in Santiago, Chile (1909). Recognized as a leading authority on power politics, imperialism, colonialism, and especially on the Far East, Reinsch was a prolific writer, and while teaching at Wisconsin wrote numerous textbooks, monographs, and articles. In 1913 he left the university to accept an appointment from President Woodrow Wilson as U.S. minister to the Peking government of China. He served in this capacity from 1913 to 1919 and during these years fought vigorously to persuade the U.S. government to give greater aid to China in the form of relief grants, to stimulate Red Cross activities in China, and to pledge U.S. aid to China in return for Chinese support in World War I. Reinsch was strongly opposed to the Shantung Agreement of the Versailles Treaty, which granted the German protectorate of the Shantung Peninsula to Japan, and in 1919 he resigned his position, feeling that his attempts to promote Chinese sovereignty and maintain Japan in a position of non-interference had been frustrated. Returning to the U.S. in 1920, Reinsch established a law practice in Washington, D.C., but was also maintained as an adviser by the Chinese government. In 1920 he was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate from Wisconsin, and shortly thereafter the last two of his many books appeared, An American Diplomat in China (1922) and Secret Diplomacy (1922). Recalled to Peking by the Chinese government in July, 1922, in an attempt to reorganize the Chinese financial system, Reinsch contracted bronchial pneumonia and died several months later in Shanghai. Dict. Amer. Biog.; Who's Who in Amer., 112 (1922); Milwaukee journal, Jan. 26, 1923; P. S. Reinsch Papers.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has manuscripts related to this topic. See the catalog description of the Paul Samuel Reinsch Papers for details.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]